Panicked Thoughts and Needed Talks
by Jillie chan
Summary: After the kiss, in that moment everything was perfect. And then that moment ended. OR Chat Noir: You remember too? Ladybug: *pterodactyl screeching*
1. Panicked Thoughts: Marinette

"With your permission, M'Lady?" Chat asked gently taking her hand.

Ladybug smiled then leaned in.

For a moment the world stopped, time held its breath, gravity relaxed.

They broke apart and Ladybug tossed the teapot into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

While her ladybugs fixed everything she sighed and leaned into Chat Noir. She hoped that she would remember; Adrien was really wonderful and supportive and kind. She was really lucky; it would be fun to joke with him how it was to fall in love again.

If they did forget at least some part of their hearts would remember.

She would never regret kissing Adrien Agreste.

The ladybugs swirled around them.

Ladybug's eyes snapped open, leaning back from Chat Noir.

Chat Noir's eyes were wide looking at her.

"You remember too?"

What?

Thoughts

Brick wall

What?

Did she really just kiss Chat Noir?

Chat Noir was Adrien Agreste?

She just kissed Adrien Agreste!

He knew he was the background of her phone!

He was Chat Noir!?

They kissed!

Adrien was Chat NOIR!

"Ladybug, please breath?"

She should just jump off of the building now.

"I'm going to jump off of the building now."

Chat's face softened, hurt. "Ladybug, I'm sorry-"

"Ten minutes."

She could contain an entire freak out into ten minutes right?

"Just-ten minutes."

Chat Noir, Adrien, looked unsure. He gave a shaky nod.

"Okay."

She jumped off of the building.

What?

She kissed Chat Noir.

Chat Noir was Adrien.

It had taken her a stupid amount of time to work up the nerve to kiss him on the CHEEK during the picnic.

_And she had just put her mouth on his mouth!_

Where was she?

Rooftop: neighboring building.

Need to find safe place to detransform.

Stairwell.

Need to call Alya.

The freakout would be useless until she screamed at Alya.

Her phone was dead.

Scratch that plan.

She slid open her yo-yo.

New plan: scream at Master Fu.

Master Fu said that she wouldn't remember.

_SHE FREAKING REMEMBERED!_

Her earrings beeped one final time and the transformation gave out leaving her holding nothing. Or nothing until Tikki landed in her hands.

Okay, New NEW plan: scream at Tikki.

"I KISSED ADRIEN!"

Tikki winced. The Kwami opened one eye and gave a sheepish smile. "At least now you know he feels the same?"

Marinette banged her head against the stairwell wall.


	2. Panicked Thoughts: Adrien

Chat Noir held Ladybug close. He loved this girl. He would always love this girl. Whatever stupid fight they had had wasn't important.

What mattered was that he was in love with Ladybug, in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Wait…

He was in love with Ladybug…who was Marinette Dupain-Cheng…

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who sat behind him in class, was Ladybug.

He leaned back looking down at Ladybug.

"You remember too?"

In an anime, Ladybug would've softly smiled and kissed him again.

In reality, Ladybug, Marinette, stumbled back from him with growing horror.

"W-" She gestured to him.

"I-" She gestured to herself.

"K-" She dragged her hands through her hair.

He reached for her. "Ladybug, please breath?"

She nodded mutely.

"I'm going to jump off of the building now."

Chat's heart twisted. It wasn't some perfect fantasy girl behind the mask.

It was Marinette.

It was sweet, kind, caring, smart, driven, loyal, Marinette.

Who was in love with Luka.

"Ladybug, I'm sorry-"

"Ten minutes. Just-ten minutes."

Chat swallowed, trying to will away the Jenga tower of emotions that had just crashed in his chest. He looked her in the eye and nodded.

"Okay."

Ladybug grabbed her yo-yo and jumped off of the building.

God, all this time the 'Everyday Ladybug' was Ladybug everyday. She was so close and he-

He never noticed.

Chat buried his face in his hands.

He always imagined that he would just _**know**_ that it was Ladybug if they met in civilian form.

And she was behind him the whole time.

And she was in love with someone else.

A warm hand landed on his shoulder. "Dude, are you okay?"

Ladybug wasn't in love with some abstract concept of a boy that could be waved away like smoke.

Marinette was in love with Luka.

And Adrien had kissed her.

Without their memories they had kissed.

Marinette was probably feeling so guilty right now and it was his fault.

Chat Noir took a deep breath and ran his claws through his hair.

He gave a smile with no heart to Nino. "I'm fine. But I definitely owe Ladybug an apology."

"Well, she still has seven minutes left to-" Alya said in sing-song before she realized what he said. "Wait, why do you owe Ladybug an apology?"

Chat readied his staff. "Because, she's in love with someone else…I just forgot about it."

More like actively tried to ignore it.

Chat jumped off the roof.

God he was an asshole.


	3. Needed Talks: Nino and Alya

324,881 times.

The photo of LadyNoir being canon had been downloaded/rebloged/very least _liked_ 324,881 times.

Make that 324,954 times!

And they _just_ got into the elevator!

"Think they'll be okay?" Nino asked, leaning his back against the wall of the elevator.

"Of course they will be! They are Ladybug and Chat Noir! If they would just get over themselves I have photographic proof of them being perfect together!" Alya brought her phone up, showing Nino the photo again.

Nino barely glanced at the picture before he looked past it at her. "Are you sure? I mean, they both looked really freaked out after that kiss."

"No," Alya admitted. She looked at the Ladyblog; 325,146. She stepped back, leaning against the opposite wall to him, gently knocking her head against the wall. "Leave it to them to suck all the fun out of this."

The elevator slid down three floors.

"Do you think that's why Ladybug always says they're not a couple?" Nino asked.

Alya blinked. "What?"

"That she's got, you know, like a boyfriend in real life."

Alya leveled a look at him. "Nino, this _is_ real life."

"You know what I mean. In like her non-Ladybug life she's got someone."

Alya stared.

All of those times that Ladybug flipped out over people insisting she was with Chat Noir. People pushing and pressuring them to kiss or admit it or showing the two proof of how they were 'soulmates'.

"Holy shit."

Ladybug had a boyfriend in civilian life.

"How did I miss that?"

"Well, Ladybug is a pretty private. Makes sense for her to want to keep it on the down low, y'know."

"Of course, _she's_ a professional. Then what about Chat? He's always flirting with her and…you know!" Alya winked twice and nudged the air with her elbow.

Nino shrugged. "Maybe he's just some giant flirt, some guys just can't turn it off, you know?"

Alya raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's tots true! There was this one guy at a gig I was DJing and he had such bedroom eyes, I mean-"

"Nino, should I be concerned?"

"What, no! I'm just saying: Chat's natural default is 'flirt'. The whole reason they're, like, not a couple is because he's trying to respect her boundaries."

"And cause he knows she has a boyfriend," Alya looked at her phone. She pulled up the picture. Alya had a picture that at one point Nadia Chamack was akumatized for on the Ladyblog. And she had put it on there practically as soon as she took it. After all, the best back up against Marinette was to immediately post important Ladybug news to the Ladyblog.

326,465.

It was officially way, way, _WAY_ too late to take the post down.

Ladybug was never going to trust her again.

"Um, speaking of boundaries?" Nino asked as the elevator opened.

Alya looked up from her phone to see Nino giving her an embarrassed smile. The phantom of his hand up her-

She screwed her eyes shut as she stepped out of the elevator. "Don't remind me, or I might just be Akumatized again."

Alya never imagined that she would be turned into a supervillain _twice_.

Well three times if you counted Heroes' Day.

"Does Heroes' Day count against us?"

"Uh, maybe, but shouldn't we like focus on what we should say to everyone?"

"The truth," Alya said, "We snuck away to play Super Penguino and then we got caught."

"But what about-?"

_"We snuck away to play Super Penguino and then we got caught."_

"Got it."

Madame Bustier waved them over to the bus. "I'm glad to see you are alright, but I hope you two are ready to apologize to the cla-"

"I NEED TO TALK TO YOU NOW!"

And Alya was hit by a bus the size and shape of Marinette.


	4. Needed Talks: Nino and Adrien

Nino blinked.

He looked at where Alya used to be and then turned to where Marinette had dragged his girlfriend. Damn, Marinette was strong; Alya had lost her shoe in the rush to not be completely run over.

"MARINETTE!" Madame Bustier scolded after the two.

"Don't."

Nino turned back.

Adrien looked like his father just cancelled birthdays, Christmas, Easter AND said that he was going to be homeschooled again.

"Please, Madame Bustier, she just needs a minute," Adrien pleaded.

"Adrien, are you alright?" Madame Bustier asked.

"Can," Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. "Can I please talk to Nino? Please?"

Double 'please' not a good sign.

Madame Bustier seemed to agree. "Alright, I'll give you ten minutes, then we have to leave."

"Thank you," Adrien said, gesturing Nino to follow.

So not good, now it looked like Adrien's dad had taken Halloween and weekends away.

They passed Alya's shoe and Nino barely remembered to pause to pick it up.

Adrien didn't turn to look at him.

"Dude?" Nino prompted.

"I kissed Marinette."

Nino dropped Alya's shoe. "Are you for real?"

"Yeah."

How was it possible for Adrien to look like his dad had taken even more from him? What was left? The Fourteenth of July?

"Okay, could you explain to me why this seems to be a bad thing?"

"I didn't… think it was and then- but I mean-"

"Okay dude, start over, what happened? From the top. But, uh, short version 'cause we only have ten minutes."

"So Marinette and I were running from the Akuma, looking for a place to hide and it hit us both."

Nino tried not to look too guilty.

"And so we come to and have No Idea who we are or what the heck is going on. And so-"

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck.

"So?" Nino prompted.

"So we go through our phones, and going by the pictures we have on it we come to the conclusion that we're…a couple?"

"So, how did you come to that?"

"She has me in the spring collection as her phone's background."

Phone backgrounds: the modern day locket. Nino looked over to Alya and Marinette; yep that over the top gesture seemed to match up with what Adrien said.

"So you came to the conclusion just because of Marinette's phone?"

"No-Yes, Sorta? I mean that's what tipped us off but then…"

Adrien looked like he was in some goddamn anime with how wistful he looked.

"What, dude?"

"It was perfect, Nino," Adrien sighed. "I mean not completely, cause you know memories, but without them? We talked and laughed and she's so _clever_. And even after we found out about a _Super-villain_ she kept her cool and all I could think was…" Adrien trailed off.

"Dude, remember ten minutes," Nino rolled his hand.

"I asked if I could kiss her and she said yes."

"Okay, still not seeing how this leads to you looking like Hawkmoth just murdered Ladybug in front of you?"

Adrien's spine snapped up and he looked over at Marinette in alarm. Nino started turning back to see Alya jumping up and down as Marinette did what looked to be half a jumping jack. Nino looked back at Adrien in time to see him deflate again. "Please don't joke like that."

"Only if you tell me why this is a problem."

"Because after I kissed her, Ladybug's cure happened!"

"Okay, and?"

"And?"

"Yeah, and?" Nino demanded.

"And what?"

"And what about Ladybug's cure made this entire thing weird? Do-" The part of Nino that only really woke up when he was Carapace stirred. "Do you not _like_ Marinette?"

"What? No, no, no. I think I just realized how in love with this girl I am."

"Okay, sooooo?"

"So: _She's in love with Luka!"_

Nino was sure the look on his face was like that meme of the woman trying to solve a complex math problem in her head.

"Okay, um, how-?"

"Uh…remember how I was trying to get over my crush over a coworker?"

Nino nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Well, I invited Marinette along and she invited Luka."

Nino nodded. "One date is not love."

"We also teamed up with Luka for Nightgale's music video."

"Still not love."

"After we got our memories back she just freaked out! She's worried that she accidentally cheated on her boyfriend! I didn't mean to, y'know-"

"Excuse me; I need to give my girlfriend back her shoe."

Before Adrien could protest, Nino power walked towards Alya, stopped, turned back, picked up her shoe and then power walked to Alya.

"Excuse me," Nino pulled a _beaming _Alya away from a frazzled Marinette.

"Nino, I can die happy. If I had known that all it would have taken to get these two together is us getting caught with your hand on my bra and becoming a super villain I would've-"

"Adrien thinks that Marinette is in love with Luka and that she's freaking out because she kissed someone not her boyfriend."

Alya's face turned into something that he had only really seen on Rena Rouge.

She nodded at him.

He held up her shoe and nodded back.

She took it and they went back to their respected best friends.

Adrien had misinterpreted why Nino had walked away and was half way to the bus when Nino caught up with him.

"Okay, dude, the best thing I can tell you is that Poor Communication Kills. Do _not_ let it kill you."

"Uh, what does that mean?"

"It means: You need to talk to Marinette."

Adrien nodded like he already knew that. "You're right, I'll apologize to Marinette for kissing her-"

"What, no, don't apologize for the kiss!"

Adrien looked confused. "What?"

"Okay, so like, apologize for making her uncomfortable, but under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you apologize for the kiss, dude."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Do you regret kissing Marinette?"

"Of course I do, Nino, she freaked out-!"

"Do you regret the kiss itself?"

"I," Adrien paused. "I-I know I _should_…"

"So, apologize that you made her uncomfortable but make it clear that you don't regret that it was _her_ you kissed."

"Are you sure? I mean, we _just_ got to the point where she's comfortable around me-"

"Yes, if you apologize for the kiss itself she might think that you would have rather kissed ANYONE else, like Chloe or Lila or that girl from your fencing club!"

"Kagami?"

"Yeah, so: make it clear. Get it?"

Adrien smiled. "Got it."

"Good," Nino put a hand on Adrien and led them to the bus. "And for my part, dude, I'm sorry I put you in this mess."

Adrien looked at him.

"I, uh, Alya and I were the Akuma."

"How did you get Akumatized?"

"_We snuck away to play Super Penguino. And then we got caught."_

"O-okay?"


	5. Needed Talks: Alya and Marinette

One moment Alya was walking to the bus with Nino

"I NEED TO TALK TO YOU NOW!"

The next she was half way back to the building with Marinette.

"What the-?" Where had Alya's shoe gone?

"_I kissed __**Adrien**_**!**_"_

_What?_

"What? Girl, details, NOW!"

"It was amazing! The world stopped! Time held its breath! Gravity relaxed, Alya! _RELAXED_!" Marinette grabbed Alya's shoulders and shook her slightly.

Alya wrapped her hands around Marinette's wrists. "Girl, I'm so proud!"

"Alya, what do I do!?"

Alya rolled her eyes. "Uh, adopt that hamster with him? Have those three kids? Whatever else is in your grand plan? Kiss him again!?"

"I can't kiss him!" Marinette exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air.

"You already did!"

"Yeah, but he didn't know it was _me!_ I mean he knew it was me, but he didn't know that it was me _me! This is a disaster!" _Marinette ran her hands through her hair.

"Okay, you know what, start from the beginning, what happened?"

"Okay, so woke up with no memory with _Adrien_."

Alya nodded. "Uh-huh."

"And we are being chased by a super-villain!"

Alya gasped. "Were you saved by Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

Marinette blinked blankly. "Uh…yeah. We…were?"

"How were they? Did they still have their memories or-?"

"Alya focus!"

"Right, sorry."

"So after that, we go through our phones and I showed him that he was my background. So I go 'I think we're dating?' And he just AGREED?" Marinette threw he hands up.

"Girl, you wing-manned yourself!"

"Yeah!"

"So then what?"

"Uuuuuuuh…" Marinette looked a little panicked.

"Girl…were you two… playing_ Super __Penguino?_" Alya smirked.

"What? No, our phones died!"

Alya pressed her fingers to her forehead. "Making out! Did you two then spend the whole time making out?!"

"Oh, no! Uh, we kinda spent it more trying make sure the supervillain didn't' find us!"

"What could the villain do to you? Erase your memory again?"

"Yes!"

"…Okay, fair point."

"But we hung out, I talked to him, like a human!"

"Good job."

"And then he asked if he could kiss me and I said 'yes'!"

Alya couldn't help but jump up and down.

"And then Ladybug's cure happened!"

"Oh my god!"

"I know! _What do I do_?"

"Girl, you know he's into you! Just date!"

"It's not that simple!"

"_HOW_ on earth could it not be simple?"

"Because I'm ME! And I've ruined this! How could I? I mean I thought that I was doing the right thing but I wasn't! Now things are going to be super weird and he'll hate me and then when an akuma attacks Paris is doomed because we're too busy trying not to be weird around each other and Hawkmoth will get the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses and take over the world and Adrien will walk away blaming this all on me!"

"How are you and Adrien not getting along going to let Hawkmoth win?"

Alya smirked as Marinette floundered trying to rationalize that.

"Excuse me," Nino said, leading Alya away a little.

"Nino, I can die happy! If I had known that all it would have taken to get these two together is us getting caught with your hand on my bra and becoming a super villain I would've-"

"Adrien thinks that Marinette is in love with Luka," Nino said, "and that she's freaking out because she kissed someone not her boyfriend."

Alya blinked, suddenly Marinette's freak out made sense.

She already screwed up with Ladybug and Chat Noir, she couldn't do anything about that. But she could get Marinette's head on straight.

Alya nodded at Nino.

He held up her shoe and nodded back.

She took it and they went back to their respected best friends.

"Marinette, what _exactly _did you say after the kiss?" Alya demanded, channeling all of experience as superhero.

Marinette took a step back. "Uh, well, words I hope?"

"Did you at least stick around?"

"Uh, funny that you say that…"

"Of course," Alya growled out, grabbing Marinette's shoulder as she put her shoe back on. "You two kissed and then as soon as you got your memory back: you pulled a 'Marinette Special'!"

"I didn't mean to run away! I just…_needed _to run away!"

"Girl, you have to talk to Adrien!"

"I can't!" Marinette deflated. "You know me: I can never talk about this with him. I-no matter how much I want to, _every time _I try I just-!" Marinette buried her face into her hands.

"Then _don't_ talk to him!"

Marinette looked up, shocked out of her self-pity. "What?"

"You said so yourself: You can't talk to Adrien. So don't. Talk to the boy you lost your memory with you."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Marinette," Alya took a deep breath, grabbing both of Marinette's shoulders, "the way I see it you have two choices: Either don't talk to Adrien and everything you said up to Hawkmoth winning will come true OR you _talk_ to him. You said so yourself: without your memories you could talk to him like a human. So focus on that."

Marinette looked at the ground. She took a deep breath and released it.

"Okay."

"Good," Alya let go of Marinette. "Just, please, talk to him so I can see the two of you happy before Ladybug kills me."

"Oka-wait, why is Ladybug going to kill you?"

"Oh, uh, I, uh, I _might_ have posted a picture of Ladybug and Chat Noir kissing to the Ladyblog without their permission?"

"WHAT?!"

"I know, right? Pretty sure Ladybug's going to soooo mad at me…"

"Girls, time to get on the bus!" Madame Bustier called to them.

"Come on girl, let's go home."

"You have a picture… on the Ladyblog… for all of Paris to see…"

Alya gave a fond shake of her head and left Marinette to her shock.


	6. Needed Talks: Marinette and Adrien

"I don't understand why you needed to talk to Alya. She just told said the same thing I did!" Tikki groused from Marinette's purse.

"I know, I know," Marinette sighed. She looked at bus, where Nino and Adrien were waiting by the door.

"Admit it, you're just stalling!"

"You're right, Tikki, I am," Marinette clutched her purse strap tightly. "I just-I really messed up."

"Marinette, the way to fix this hasn't changed. The longer you wait the more of a mess this is going to be!"

"Is there any way to make this less scary?"

"What about what Alya said?"

_Talk to the boy who lost his memory with you._

"Okay," Marinette took a deep breath.

Nino and Alya got on the bus, both of them pausing to take turns laying a hand on Adrien's shoulder.

Marinette forced herself to walk to the bus.

Adrien straightened out of his lean when she got closer.

Marinette froze.

Why?

Why was it so easy to see Chat Noir's ears droop on Adrien's head?

Maybe because Chat Noir was Adrien…

Marinette took another shaky step forward.

Adrien was fidgeting almost as badly as Chat Noir on a stakeout.

Which made sense, because Adrien WAS Chat Noir.

"Marinette?"

Her heart jumped and then dove to join the butterflies in her stomach.

"Hey," She said eyes on his shirt.

"Hey," he said.

Oh God, he sounded so disappointed. This was why she never wanted anyone to know who she was-!

Her purse banged into her leg.

Marinette took Tikki's hint.

She looked up at Adrien who looked almost angry.

"Can we-?"

"I wanted to say-"

They both stopped abruptly waiting for the other to finish.

Adrien gestured to her. "Y-you go first."

"Okay," Marinette took a deep breath. "I, uh, we should-"

"Okay, you two," Madame Bustier said climbing halfway down the bus's stairs. "I know we had a bit of excitement today but we need to head back to school."

Adrien rolled his eyes and sent her a look that on Chat Noir would have said '_Civilians, right?'_

She sent back an '_I know!'_ look before she frustratingly froze again.

Why was it so easy to project Chat Noir onto Adrien?

Marinette blinked.

Because Chat Noir WAS Adrien.

How was she going to do this?

_Talk to the boy who lost his memory with you._

Adrien was half way up the bus's stairs when Marinette grabbed his wrist.

Adrien looked back at her, heartbreakingly hopeful.

Marinette swallowed with a dry throat. "Can, can I sit next to you?"

"Y-yeah, Yes, of course, M'la-, Marinette!"

Marinette nodded and followed him onto the bus. They walked along looking for an empty seats right next to each other.

"What is THIS?!" Chloe demanded as they passed her.

Marinette jumped, the whole class turning to look at what 'this' Chloe was shouting about.

"Chloe," Adrien said as he squeezed Marinette's hand and she realized: her hand had slipped from his wrist so they were now holding hands. "It's none of your concern."

"OOoooohhh!" Kim called mockingly, "Adrien and Marinette-!"

With one mind the class turned to Kim and started talking over each other. Everyone closest to Kim, and some classmates climbing over each other to reach him, started to physically attacking him. Some however were calling out…

Congratulations.

Where was the stupid memory Akuma when she needed it?

Adrien tugged on her hand, urging her to the back of the bus. She felt as safe as if it were Chat Noir pulling her out of the line of fire.

Which made sense seeing as Adrien was Chat Noir.

Adrien sat in the bus's window seat at the very back of the bus, leaving her the aisle seat.

"Have they lost interest?" Adrien asked once she was settled.

"Mostly, a few keep looking back."

Adrien half stood, startling their classmates into looking forward. "If my phone wasn't dead I'd just call my bodyguard and ask him to pick us up."

The part of her that was Ladybug wondered which was more secure: a bus full of their easily distractible classmates or a car with only Adrien's bodyguard who was paid not to eavesdrop?

The part that was Marinette with a MASSIVE crush on the boy next to her was leaping from '_he'd ask to marry her in the privacy of the car' _to '_He'll declare that neither Marinette or Ladybug were good enough for him_' to '_Now that he knew that it was pathetic little Marinette pretending to be a superhero he was going to join Hawkmoth'_ to-

"Sorry," Adrien said.

The apology and the bus jolting forward snapped her out of her eighteenth plan-ception. "Why are you sorry? If anyone should be sorry it should be me! I took _way_ longer than ten minutes and then I ran away from you to talk to Alya."

Adrien gave a small smile. "You know, if you weren't…you know, it would've been impressive that you knocked her out of her shoe."

"So _because of that, _it's not impressive?" Marinette said.

"Nah, if anything, I'm disappointed that you didn't knock her socks off," Adrien teased back, looking radiant in the sun that bounced off of a passing building and with a grin that only Chat Noir could only hope to match.

Marinette ducked her head to hide her blush.

What was Marinette doing; teasing Adrien like he was Chat Noir?

Who.

Was.

Adrien.

Agreste!

Adrien wilted. "Sorry."

"No, no, no!" Marinette hurried to reassure, "It's, I, you-"

_Talk to the boy you lost your memory with_.

Marinette took a deep breath. "It's not you, I'm just having a hard time absorbing, that you're…well, _you_. You know?"

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, this isn't how I imagined we'd find out about each other."

"Except for the kissing! He's always imagined the kissing!" Plagg snitched, floating out of Adrien's shirt.

"Plagg!" Adrien hissed, snatching the kwami out of the air with both hands.

Adrien was…blushing…at the idea… of kissing…_her?_

For a moment she was over the moon and then she realized he was blushing about kissing _Ladybug._

"Sorry," she said.

"You can't just-" Adrien looked at her, scolding his kwami forgotten. "Why are you sorry?"

"Just," Marinette tangled her fingers in the strap of her purse. "You must be very disappointed that, that the girl, behind the mask, is you know, so bland…"

Light pressure on her hand made her look over to see Tikki resting her paws on her hand.

"Marinette," Adrien hesitated then laid his hand on her wrist. "I'm…I'm sorry that it took losing our memories, for me to realize that you are just as incredible out of the mask as you are in it."

Marinette looked at Adrien. "You…you're nothing like I'd thought you'd be."

Adrien gave her a baffled look.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, you're handsome and incredible and incredibility handsome and I-" Tikki pinched her. Marinette cleared her throat. "What I mean is…I always imagined you'd be the class clown. Bouncing off the walls, puns everywhere, flirting with every girl you came across…"

"I wasn't kidding about loving you," Adrien said.

"I know! I just…"

"…are you disappointed?"

"No. I just…"

Adrien nodded. "I…I hope I didn't make things too awkward for you and Luka."

Marinette's unstable train of thought derailed. "Wait, when did Luka come up?"

Adrien blinked. "Isn't he the boy you like? The one…" Adrien looked at their classmates to ensure that no one was listening. He leaned in close to her. "The one you were always turning Chat Noir down for?"

Marinette jumped out of her seat. "WHAT?! No!"

Most of the bus looked back to them.

"MARINETTE!" Miss Bustier scolded.

Marinette gave an apologetic grin and sat down. "I mean, uh…"

_Talk to the boy who lost his memory with you._

Marinette took a deep breath, her eyes focused on the grey fabric of the seat in front of her. "The boy I kept turning Chat Noir down for…was… you."

Marinette glanced at him.

He looked a stunned.

Oh, god he was about to realize what wreck she was and how he could so much better and-

Adrien leaned his head on hers. "We're idiots, aren't we?"

"Eh, I think it's 'cause you two speak two different love languages," Plagg said.

"You know about love languages?" Tikki asked, her brow raised.

"After the amount of 'oh, Plagg, how can I make Ladybug see I love her' YouTube marathons, I have no choice," Plagg grumbled.

"And you didn't think to just give him advice?"

"What do you mean? I tell him to skip school all the time! Not to mention all the cheese-"

"About love?" Tikki clarified.

"I'm giving him advice now?" Plagg said.

Tikki smacked her head.

"Look you two," Plagg said. "Adrien talks a big game but he really means it. He's also denser than a block of Gouda-"

"Hey!"

"-so you got to spell it out for him," Plagg said.

"And," Tikki said, coming out of Marinette's purse, "Marinette really likes to do things for others! She was really impressed by the picnics you put together for her!"

Marinette blushed. "So what you're saying is-?"

"-we have to work on our communication?" Adrien finished.

The kwamis nodded.

"I'm willing if you are," Adrien said, holding out his hand.

Marinette smiled, intertwining her fingers with his. "I am."

Marinette looked at him. "Can I-"

"Would you mind if I-?"

They blushed.

Marinette tugged on their hands. Adrien leaned towards her.

She met him half way.

It was just as gravity relaxing as the first one.

The universe cheering was new…

"They kissed before the end of the school year!" Alix crowed. "Pay up!"

Never mind, that was the whole bus.

Marinette rested her head against his chest, red faced and stage whispering over the cheers. "I should warn you: Alya posted a picture of Ladybug and Chat Noir kissing."

Adrien rested his head on the back of hers. "Now I _really_ wish that my phone wasn't dead."


End file.
